So now when we need some clear leadership to negotiate Brexit, we will be distracted by inter-party squabbling over forming a government (currently looking like the DUP might hold the reins if the Tories stay in nominal control, so NI will wag the UK dog).

Meanwhile, the EU is sorting out its position with remarkable unity (so far), and will now be sharpening its castration knives ready for the "negotiations" (which seem likely to consist of a weak UK agreeing to whatever the EU demands to maintain trade links).

I do wonder if there is anything else that can go wrong with votes in the UK. Particularly if there's another General Election soon....

One comment I read from a European politician is that over the past couple of years the UK has been ploughing a determined path towards being the only First World country to voluntarily surrender that status.

A pessimistic vision from an unnamed former Tory minister, quoted in the Times today:

The Brexit negotiations will be awful....There is no way that the other 27 countries will allow us to emerge better off. The country will be poorer. Then the electorate's eyes will narrow. The blame will settle on the Tory party. We will own the entire mess. And their revenge on us at the next election will be awesome to behold. We will be wiped out.

I can't help feeling that he might have added a second paragraph. Something like:

"And by the end of the first Labour parliament, the electorate will have realised that there is indeed no Magic Money Tree, and the country will be poorer still. Their disillusionment will be so great that the Labour Party will be wiped out in the next election. Which leaves no-one in charge of the UK."

Frankly, I find the events of the last couple of years almost unbelievable.

Before the 2015 election, we were prospering nicely with a stable coalition government and a privileged membership of the world's largest trading bloc, with lots of opt-outs to suit ourselves (particularly the Euro).

Then the idiot Tories decided to focus on wiping out the LibDems in the election, and succeeded so well that they unexpectedly won an overall majority, resulting in the anti-EU nutters on the Tory right forcing the promised referendum on membership which was ludicrously favourable to them; particularly on requiring only a simple majority when most organisations require something like a two-thirds majority for any such major change. And then the Remainers fought a pathetic campaign while the Brexiteers lied through their collective teeth, whipping up populist support with simplistic slogans. Now everyone except the LibDems and the SNP is committed to follow through with Brexit - an act of wilful self-harm which is likely to result in many tears over the next few years.

Our politicians have been so incredibly incompetent over this whole issue that I will be amazed if they have done any real preparation for the negotiations about to start, while the EU negotiators are primed and ready with their divorce settlement demands, starting with a cool €100 billion as a down-payment.

That would have been bad enough, but then May decides on an unnecessary election and throws away any negotiating strength we might have had. While Corbyn wanders around scattering free offers to entice credulous youth, possibly to a illegal extent (offering not just to scrap fees for new students, but for existing ones as well - which could be regarded as bribing people to vote for you). If Corbyn ever gets in it will herald a return to the 1970s, which is when he stopped developing mentally, and I well recall how dire that decade was.

Oh well, I can put all of this in the same box as climate change: a future catastrophe which I personally probably don't need to worry too much about - the younger generations will get hit the hardest, as with most other things.

Frankly, I find the events of the last couple of years almost unbelievable.

Before the 2015 election, we were prospering nicely with a stable coalition government and a privileged membership of the world's largest trading bloc, with lots of opt-outs to suit ourselves (particularly the Euro).

Then the idiot Tories decided to focus on wiping out the LibDems in the election, and succeeded so well that they unexpectedly won an overall majority, resulting in the anti-EU nutters on the Tory right forcing the promised referendum on membership which was ludicrously favourable to them; particularly on requiring only a simple majority when most organisations require something like a two-thirds majority for any such major change. And then the Remainers fought a pathetic campaign while the Brexiteers lied through their collective teeth, whipping up populist support with simplistic slogans. Now everyone except the LibDems and the SNP is committed to follow through with Brexit - an act of wilful self-harm which is likely to result in many tears over the next few years.

Our politicians have been so incredibly incompetent over this whole issue that I will be amazed if they have done any real preparation for the negotiations about to start, while the EU negotiators are primed and ready with their divorce settlement demands, starting with a cool €100 billion as a down-payment.

That would have been bad enough, but then May decides on an unnecessary election and throws away any negotiating strength we might have had. While Corbyn wanders around scattering free offers to entice credulous youth, possibly to a illegal extent (offering not just to scrap fees for new students, but for existing ones as well - which could be regarded as bribing people to vote for you). If Corbyn ever gets in it will herald a return to the 1970s, which is when he stopped developing mentally, and I well recall how dire that decade was.

Oh well, I can put all of this in the same box as climate change: a future catastrophe which I personally probably don't need to worry too much about - the younger generations will get hit the hardest, as with most other things.

:y Not for the first time I find myself in almost total agreement with you.